Workshops and Training
The education phase of the program emphasizes the betterment of environment, health, and quality of life through grassroots knowledge. The education program is divided into two lines of action:
The first line attempts to create economic stability for families. It establishes a business designed, organized and managed by the project participants. Decisions are made in group dialogue, avoiding inter-group complications. In addition, ASSADE guides them with the creation of the business and acts as an advisory board, which is especially important during the early stages of creation.
The second line educates families in higher goals of autonomy and empowerment. It consists of workshops whose themes are chosen through discussion and by the members of the project (including both the participants and the ASSADE staff). On our part, we wish to address the issues which we believe are crippling rural life, as well as issues that arise in discussion. In particular, health issues and the importance of hand hygiene, dental hygiene and family planning, social and psychological issues such as self-esteem and gender violence, environmental preservation and economic issues such as the importance of saving are topics which are emphasized. These issues are proposed to the group in the same way which any other member may propose a topic that interests them. Both topics must be discussed and approved by the group before being carried out.
The dynamics of the trainings and workshops are also horizontal (they are run in a discussion, almost Socratic seminar, format). Keeping in mind that academic knowledge cannot replace empirical knowledge, the leaders of the discussion tread carefully with respect and openness. The training should form a harmonious workshop that transcends the myth of the dichotomy "wisdom" vs. "Ignorance". Because of this, we try to avoid teacher-student structure and the vertical transfer of academic content. The more formal content is discovered experientially through elements of reality in which we live.
We will analyze reality and its various components thorough the analysis of discussions that come from “decoding” images. That is, the workshops will begin with an image, or a proposed dynamic staging that is contained in the theme of the day. Students will describe what they think and feel about different topics. Subsequently, through the impressions created by these discussions, we will try to find common ground between the members of the discussion. Members will seek causes to the problems in their lives and share the impact of these problems to others. The education program also sets real life, approachable role models and goals (for example, proposing solutions to improve their living conditions significantly). This methodology is based on the fact that cooperative relations within a group may in many cases meet such targets to improve living conditions.
